
The Steel Sculptress
2/15/2023 | 8m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Betsy Bower uses steel working to show people different ways to grow & develop.
Betsy Bower uses her steel working talents to show people different ways to grow and develop. Whether doing commission work, exploring her own ideas, or offering classes, Betsy hopes to cultivate communities and make connections based on artistic ideas.
Our Wyoming is a local public television program presented by Wyoming PBS

The Steel Sculptress
2/15/2023 | 8m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Betsy Bower uses her steel working talents to show people different ways to grow and develop. Whether doing commission work, exploring her own ideas, or offering classes, Betsy hopes to cultivate communities and make connections based on artistic ideas.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(inspiring music) - When I was growing up, I felt like I didn't see who I wanted to become modeled for me.
I would look at artists like Da Vinci, and Michelangelo, and geniuses like Tesla, and Benjamin Franklin.
I'd be looking for the female version of them, not knowing where to find it.
I wanted to find my own way.
(hammer hitting) I didn't wanna be a mother, I didn't wanna be married to a man.
Like, that's not the existence I was hoping to have.
I wanted to be in places where people were building cool stuff, or there were just things going on, and things to do.
I didn't want to be a subservient woman, and I knew that I could never be.
(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) There's a reason I was drawn to this medium.
I made that.
The fire speaks to me.
The metal speaks to me.
The smell of the metal dust speaks to me.
It's familiar, it's home.
But it's also familiar and home because I grew up in my dad's metal shop.
What's up, dad?
- [Tom] Got a project for you.
(upbeat music) - Remember when I used to jump when you would light the torch?
And then you told me... (torch popping and hissing) - Kind of like that?
- Yeah, like that.
Now I go in and like, I'm looking down at the tables, but I was kind of looking up at the tables at that age.
It just seemed like there were so many possibilities, and like all the tools, all the metal, all the everything.
I'm like "Wow.
How do they do this?
How do they make things stick together?
What happens here?"
(upbeat music continues) Okay.
Sometimes I'd work with my dad on more blacksmith-oriented pieces.
If my dad would say, "Yeah, my daughter is a blacksmith.
She'll do this part of the work."
And then I meet the customer.
They'll step back a little bit and be like, "Oh, I was picturing some big, burly person."
Ooh, it's heavier than me.
Okay.
I'm never gonna fit that mold.
(chuckling) I'm more of like this like whimsical fairy who like flutters into their living room, and they're like "What would you like?
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo."
(laughing) I think one of the things that makes my work unique is that it has like a certain organic nature to it.
(uplifting music) One of my driving forces is like wanting to show people what's possible with this medium, and doing something different with it than the norm of just making boxy, linear shapes.
Some of these elements could use a feminine touch, where it becomes more organic, or flowy.
With more feminine energy, it just like can become a little more beautiful, have that touch of beauty instead of just structure and serving a purpose, having beauty to it as well.
(uplifting music continues) I can see in my mind's eye, like how to make something three-dimensional, and how to make it work.
You can see a painter start on a layer, and they end up covering the colors that they put down, and I think in a way that's, it's like that's what I create in metal, is like I put down a layer, and then add more layers to it and build a structure out of it that ends up feeling like it's alive.
I like drawing, and I like painting, but one of the appeals to steel is it does transform.
It does transform in front of girls in a way that paintings and drawings don't.
When you put something into the fire, you're literally transforming it, and taking it from one shape into a totally different shape, and then when it cools down, it is that shape, and it's not going to bend unless you heat it again.
And no matter how many mistakes it took to get to the end of it, and maybe it's still not the end, even though I'm like, "Okay, I'm done," 'cause I'm calling it done, I've changed, and I've learned by the end of the piece.
(soft music) There's a million ways to come up with ideas for art pieces.
One of my all-time favorites is using my dreams as inspiration.
(inspiring music) When you're dreaming, every part of the dream is a small reflection of an aspect of you.
When you start to study and uncover and like, scratch deeper than just the surface level of what a dream might appear to be, it can give you a message that will change your life.
(inspiring music continues) So the NIC Art Show, I just titled "Simply Dreams."
I did a lot of pieces that were inspired by my dreams.
In a way, this was like a project for myself where I'm doing dream work to interact with the messages from my dreams, but I'm also sharing it with other people in hopes that maybe they'll have some kind of experience themselves.
(inspiring music continues) What I loved about doing a show at the NIC was not just putting pieces on the wall to try to impress people, 'cause I don't feel like that's what art is really about.
I wanted to create an experience for people, and let people into my own world.
(music continues) (camera shutting) After doing just mostly straight commissions for 11 years, I want to start to offer classes where people can learn metalworking techniques on an artistic level.
(blowtorch buzzing) A little further away.
You're a little too close.
(blowtorch buzzing continues) Yeah, right there.
Right there.
Nice.
Beautiful.
And I also wanna offer dream workshops, and teach people to uncover what their subconscious mind is trying to tell them, and to cultivate a community around that.
The process of doing an art piece out of a dream image helps you to bring it into the physical realm.
(upbeat music) All right.
Come on over.
Okay, kind of go up, straight up and down with that.
Yep, just like that.
(blowtorch buzzing) Cool.
- Okay.
Thank you.
- Nice.
So now we're gonna let it cool, and you can hang out and wait for the next step.
Dreams, we forget them so easily because we're not paying attention.
But when you start to pay attention, and you do something physical with it, it tells the subconscious mind that you're listening.
And once you make that contact, and you show some effort, your unconscious mind will give you more information.
- [Student] All good?
- [Betsy] Yeah, I like it.
- [Student] I like it, too.
- [Betsy] Cool.
- [Student] All right.
- When we realize that we're the only person stopping ourselves, it sets you free to be anything, or do anything.
I had such a strong desire to just do what I wanted to do, that I found a way anyway.
I was lucky.
I got to learn this from my dad growing up.
Like, I didn't have to go to school for it.
I wanted to share the gifts and tools that I have with people who don't have a dad who has a shop.
I just wanna offer that space to people so that they can create.
(soft music) Relationships are the only thing we have.
I wouldn't be Betsy Bower without my friends and family.
I'm not anybody without them.
We're in network.
We're in net here.
There's something to be said about having that, and having people and places to go where I feel totally loved, and accepted, and just celebrated.
(inspiring music) (inspiring music continues) (inspiring music continues) (hammer hitting) (inspiring music continues) (blowtorch buzzing) (inspiring music continues) (inspiring music continues) (no audio)
Our Wyoming is a local public television program presented by Wyoming PBS